Tiscali becomes first European ISP to offer free, legitimate access to digital music

Milan, 12th February 2003 - Tiscali becomes first European ISP to offer free, legitimate access to digital music. It's music to the ears of Tiscali customers across Europe - free, legitimate access to digital music for millions of fans.

Tiscali has teamed up with digital music company OD2 and Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series to become the first ISP offering every registered customer free digital music as part of their standard Internet access services. Until May 12th, 2003, anyone registered as a Tiscali access subscriber will be able to enjoy 6 months' worth of free legal music downloads in high quality Windows Media Audio 9 and protected with Windows Media Digital Rights Management.

Beginning today, all Tiscali users in France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and UK will be able to access the music at no additional charge. All Tiscali ISP customers will be offered free membership to the Tiscali Music Club, through which millions of consumers across Europe will be able to access OD2's entire catalogue. Included will be over 150,000 tracks by 8.500 artists as well as additional music related content (specials, radio programs, interviews, videos, etc.)

For the first time, a huge numbers of Internet users will have the opportunity to test directly the great advantages of using a legal digital music service, including:
· high quality of the files which are professionally encoded, complete, totally secure and virus free
· high downloading speed
· easy-to-use service - thanks to an editorial selection of songs and a search function for favourite tracks or artists
· fresh music related content (specials, radio programs, interviews, videos, etc.)

Specifics of Tiscali's easy-to-use music service include:

· Narrowband subscribers to receive 300 free credits (50 per month) allowing users to download 30 tracks, or stream 300 tracks over six month period
· Broadband subscribers will also receive 300 free credits (50 per month), with additional 1,000 credits, which can be used to download a further 100 tracks. Alternatively, customers can use these credits to burn legal copies of tracks onto CD (burning one track = 100 credits)
· Members will be allocated credits each month, which they can spend on streaming or downloading tracks

Content for the new Tiscali Music Club, will be provided exclusively by OD2, Europe's largest provider of legal digital music, OD2's catalogue includes music from major record labels, including Warner, BMG, EMI and Universal, along with a host of independents. The service's further collaboration with Microsoft will allow rapid downloading speeds and utilization of high quality Windows Media Audio 9 with it's significantly increased audio compression and improved sound quality.

Mario Mariani Senior VP Access and Media of Tiscali, said: "We have always believed in the legal digital music distribution and during the last years we have worked hard, side by side with OD2 and the majors, to realize this project. Today we can offer to millions of users in Europe, both dial up and broadband, the possibility to test for free the enormous advantages to use a legal service. Collaboration with Microsoft's Windows Media 9 Series technology enables us to take this digital experience to the next level. We are strongly convinced this will definitely contribute to opening a market with a tremendous potential".

Charles Grimsdale, CEO of OD2, said: "Tiscali's initiative is instrumental in broadening the exposure of consumers to legal digital music. To show there's a compelling alternative to piracy, we need to publicise the growing digital music catalogue available through legitimate channels. This initiative will reach millions people in the coming months, and we expect to see millions of tracks downloaded across Europe."

"Working with Tiscali and OD2 in their innovative campaign to bring high-quality digital music content to consumers demonstrates the positive possibilities of the digital future," said Dave Fester, general manager for the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft Corp. "Millions of music fans across the European continent will now have the opportunity to experience the enormous value a first-rate music subscription service can offer."

How it works.
To access the free music service, users need to:

o Be a Tiscali narrowband or broadband customer being connected to the Tiscali network
o follow the link to the Tiscali Music Club
o log in to the service with your Tiscali username and password
o spend credits on a selection of tracks each month
o the tracks downloaded accumulate and stay on your PC for as long as your membership of the music club is operational
o heavy users of the service can trade up to a monthly service with more tracks, or can top up their basic membership package by buying tracks on an 'a la carte' basis